Icahn wants to fire Yang? SHOCKING!

Blaise Zerega shakes his head: Why is anyone surprised that investor Carl Icahn wants to fire Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang? As if Yang had any future at Yahoo in the event of a Microsoft acquisition, or more recently, in the event that Icahn manages to install a new board of directors -- one of whom is Yang. This is more sabre rattling by Icahn, and the media, by jumping all over this "no-duh" news item has unwittingly become his instrument.

At this point, it's not at all clear that Icahn's interests align with those of Yahoo, or those of Microsoft. His apparent interest is in forcing a sale of Yahoo and turning a profit from his 10 million shares. I'm not going to defend Yang, here, but if you look at what is best for the long term interest of both Microsoft and Yahoo, it's not a forced merger resulting from a hostile acquisition. As Yahoo's last-minute employee-severance plan shows and Microsoft sensed, there's little use in buying a company if all its top talent walks out the door.

Many, many people in Silicon Valley are anti-Redmond. They simply don't like Microsoft and they certainly don't want to become Microsoft employees. And this sentiment undoubtedly runs strong at Yahoo, among others...Google, Apple, anyone?

All in all, it's a shame  --  while Microsoft's past actions may have earned the software giant a lousy reputation, it would be in the best interest of consumers, corporations, and pretty much the entire technology industry if there was some kind of ceremonial hatchet-burying between Redmond and Silicon Valley. A smooth Microsoft-Yahoo tie-up might have achieved that. Instead, we're left with Carl Ichan wielding a sabre,